Iran release UK captives

The gift from Ahmadinejad is hardly a gift but I guess one shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth as the saying goes. The big plus for Iran is that after this gesture it may be difficult for the US or Israel to sell an attack on Iran, an attack that seems to be already prepared. Don't be surprised if there is some new confrontation, one manufactured by the US.

President in star turnBy Lachlan Carmichael in London
April 05, 2007 05:22am
Article from: Agence France-Presse

IRAN'S President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pulled off a propaganda coup with the release of 15 British sailors, as he sought to push his image as a decisive regional player, former diplomats said.

While Britain will no doubt remain unhappy about the parading of its nationals on Iranian television over the last two weeks, in the short term his unexpected pre-Easter “gift” will likely earn him mostly positive headlines.

Former Iranian diplomat Mehdi Varzi said that Mr Ahmedinejad had milked the crisis well, showing the Iranian people that former colonial power Britain was not militarily omnipotent, while also boosting his credentials among Arab neighbours.

Mr Varzi noted that the sailors were paraded on Iran's state-run Arabic network Al-Alam, a sign Tehran was targeting an Arab audience increasingly angry with US and British power in the region.

“In a sense Iran can walk away from this (crisis) today and say it won,” Mr Varzi said.

Mr Varzi served as a diplomat in the Islamic Republic's first two years and now runs an energy consultancy in Britain.

Mansoor Farhang, a former Iranian ambassador to the UN, said on BBC television that Iran had been indulging in some “muscle flexing” to show it was a “power to be reckoned with”.

David Owen, a former British foreign secretary, said he now hoped that Mr Ahmadinejad would steadily improve Iran's tense ties with Britain and the US as well as play a constructive role in stabilising neighbouring Iraq.

“I think they want to turn over a new leaf,” Mr Owen told Sky News television.

He recalled that Iran tried but failed to improve relations in 2003 with the US, which has kept sanctions in place since Iranian students seized hostages at the US embassy following the Islamic revolution.

There could even be progress, he added, in the standoff between the western powers and Iran over its nuclear program, which Tehran said was peaceful but Washington said concealed a quest for nuclear weapons.

“He's a hardliner. We shouldn't delude ourselves, but it's a good step,” Mr Owen said.

Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin said the Iranian President had cleverly manipulated the situation to present his surprise as a gesture of personal largesse.

“He played a blinder,” Mr Jenkin said.

Mr Varzi said the motives behind Iran's capture of the 15 naval personnel remained murky, as did the question of whether it had sought or obtained a secret deal to win the return of Iranians held in US-occupied Iraq.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted there had been “no negotiation” to secure the sailors' freedom and US State Department spokesman Tom Casey said there was “no link whatsoever” with the Iranians in Iraq.

Varzi and another former Iranian diplomat, Hormoz Naficy, said Iran had wanted to send a message to the US as well as Britain.

“There are people I believe in the highest elements in the regime who really do expect at some stage an American strike against Iran,” Mr Varzi said.

The message was “we will not keel over” like Saddam Hussein in Iraq, he said.

“They know they cannot defeat a western military attack against the country.

"What they also know is they don't have to fight the West on their own terms.

"This is what is called asymetrical warfare,” he added.

Iran feels encircled by the US, with US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as aircraft carrier groups in the Gulf, the former diplomats said.

“Iran wants to be recognised and seen as an actor in the area and not ignored,” Mr Varzi said.